Destruction and Despair
by spikeswench
Summary: Logan dies and Alec is left to pick up the pieces. kind of. Chapter SEVEN up!
1. Default Chapter

Rant: This is my first DA fic, so I need all the help I can get. Please R&R. constructive criticism both needed and appreciated. There is more to come, so any help you give will only be to the advantage of the reading public :-)  
  
  
  
The body was disgusting. Alec didn't let it get to him. He had seen countless bodies, he had been responsible for more than a few, and he was trained to stay unaffected. Unaffected enough to keep killing regardless, he thought wryly. All the same, he did recognise disgusting when he saw it. He glanced at Max and was surprised to see her looking totally expressionless.  
  
The body was rank, it smelled as if it had been sitting in the trunk of a black car for a couple of nice warm days, which, in fact, it had. It was badly mutilated as well, a couple of pointblank shots had decimated the head and wounds from some kind of serrated blade striated the torso. The hands had been removed, posthumously, and the limbs were bloated. Decomp was advanced, he suspected the heat, along with a couple of bugs that had made the corpse their edible villa. He was standing, although he didn't know it, in his 'at ease' position  
  
Max didn't face him when she said 'How did she I.D him?'  
  
Alec looked at her profile and tried (successfully) to keep the anger from his voice when he replied 'Birthmark on his upper thigh'  
  
Max looked down carefully at what had once been Logan Cale and, sure enough, a dark brown birthmark no bigger than the top of a milk bottle stained the skin on his upper thigh. It was very upper thigh. 'Hmmm' she said, noncommittally.  
  
Alec waited for tears. Alec waited for guilt and recriminations. None came. He contemplated Logan Cale, a man who had not deserved the superhuman loyalty he had received from Max while he was fucking somebody else.  
  
'Ready to go?' asked Max as she slid the morgue drawer closed.  
  
Alec could have sworn he heard a faint sloshing sound as it clicked shut. 'Sure'  
  
She left, the morgue door swinging in her wake, and he looked at the closed drawer. 'Asshole' he muttered quietly, and was glad to have finally told Logan exactly how he felt. 


	2. Chapter Two

When he emerged into the crisp air Max was roaring off on her Ninja. He watched her taillights shrink into the night and reached into his pocket for his cell. He dialed. Two rings.  
  
'Hello?' Her voice was teary.  
  
'Asha' He greeted her seriously. 'I need to come and see you'  
  
'Sorry Alec' and for the first time he heard something like real steel in her voice, 'I'm not in the mood for tonight's episode of Everybody Loves Max. Maybe some other time'  
  
'That's not gonna cut it Asha.' He demonstrated a little metal of his own. 'Don't make me hunt you down'  
  
'Fine', she just sounded resigned now as she told him her address. 'Do you know it?'  
  
'Yeah. Sector 5. Nice neighbourhood.'  
  
'Whatever. I'm on the top floor. Don't take out any of my people'  
  
She hung up and he slid the phone into his jacket. He walked to his bike and slid on board, starting the engine. The night air ripped through his hair as he drove through the silent Seattle streets. He felt a feral grin slide across his face, there was nothing like a motorbike for chasing away the blues.  
  
  
  
He approached the building by rooftop. It was not the most welcoming of communities and except for two sentries, the street was empty. He assessed the sentries with a military eye. They were well positioned, occupying middle floors of nearby buildings, invisible from street level and overshadowed enough to make it difficult for even him to see them. He was about to feel impressed when one of them began to smoke a cigarette, lighting himself up like a Christmas tree. Amateurs, he thought derisively, and was soon lifting Asha's skylight.  
  
She didn't seem surprised when he walked into a room laughably referred to by the group as a 'kitchen'. She didn't even acknowledge him until after she had dismissed the two underfed looking ordinaries standing with her at the 'table', a large plank of wood propped up by a couple of A-frames.  
  
'Alec' she said gravely. There was no sign of the tears he had heard when he spoke to her a bare 20 minutes before.  
  
'Asha' he replied. 'I just love what you've done with the place. Very postmodern.'  
  
'Thanks. Why don't you take a seat?' and she gestured limply at the rubble as she pulled up an upturned milk crate and sat down on it. 'You'll forgive me if I don't make myself comfortable. I have some questions'  
  
She looked up at him. 'Let me guess. It has something to do with Max'  
  
'Yes and no. How long were you fucking Logan?'  
  
She winced. 'Give me one reason for answering that question, Alec. One reason for telling you something that's none of your business'  
  
'That's where you're wrong' He leaned over her so that she could get a good look in his eyes. 'Max is our leader. It affects her; it affects her ability to do her duty. It becomes my business.'  
  
She was well past the point where she retained the capacity to feel fear and her voice was even faintly amused. 'You think I'm gonna buy that? You think I'm gonna accept your militaristic all for one, one for all bullshit? Don't kid yourself Alec. You're just like all the other guys she meets. You want her to look up to you. You want to be a major part of her life. Most of all, you just want to fuck her.'  
  
By the time he regained any sense of his actions she was against the wall with her feet off the ground, anchored only by his hand around her neck. He let go and stared at her where she had crumpled to the floor. He didn't want to think about the reasons behind his reaction and he didn't apologise when he sat down next to her. He waited until she had finished gulping in air.  
  
'How long were you fucking him?'  
  
'Hard to say' and she gave a strangled gasp of laughter. 'He was so devastated when I met him, he told me that his girlfriend had been murdered and I thought "Hey join the club" because every body loses loved ones. I was busy, in and out, until I was more in than out and then one day we were falling into bed.'  
  
She had paused and seemed lost in the memories. Alec didn't want to hear the grimy details, the thought of Logan having sex at all made him want to throw up. 'What happened when she came back? When he knew she was alive?'  
  
'You should have seen him' and her mouth made an expression that looked vaguely disdainful. 'He was so happy and so guilty at once. Begging me not to tell her. I thought I could deal, because I had known all along that he loved her but when he asked me to cover it up I wanted to kill him. I didn't kill him, just kept on fighting the good fight like a good little comrade.  
  
'It only ever happened one more time after that. I went there very early in the morning. Can't remember why but I did. Maybe I invented a reason. He was working and I kissed him. We ended up making love on his desk, disks were going everywhere, paper.'  
  
She tailed off and he tried to focus on something other than the imagery she had implanted in his mind.  
  
'Afterwards, he didn't even bother asking me not to tell her. Just zipped up his pants and picked up the disks. Went about his business. He knew I would keep my mouth shut.'  
  
He couldn't think of the next question. It was all so revolting. Even a dickhead like Logan should have been able to keep it in his pants after Max came back. He even felt sorry for Asha, who was a big girl and probably should have known better. If the guy weren't already dead he would probably be thinking of really painful ways to kill him. Even as it stood, he was tempted to return to the morgue and further dismember the corpse.  
  
He snapped out of it, remembering his official reason for coming, the reason he would be giving anybody back at T.C. who asked. Asha was still just sitting there, staring vacantly into space. A ring of purple bruising was appearing on her neck. He felt a pang of regret and brushed it aside. In some ways, Asha was as much a soldier as he was and she would understand.  
  
'Who took him out?'  
  
She looked blank so he prompted her. 'Logan.'  
  
'Oh. ummm.' She struggled to focus. 'Gangsters. Just local hoods, really. They're kind of connected to the Mayor's office, couple of minor drug rings, black market cultural product. That knife work on his chest was a trademark of one of their guys,' she explained as he shot her a questioning look.  
  
He honed in on the detail. 'Was?'  
  
She shrugged. 'I had to do something'.  
  
'How did you find the body?'  
  
'It was left in a stolen car and parked outside a police station. It was a couple of days before anybody noticed the smell and well, we've been keeping an eye out for the body of an associate so the anonymous corpse was a bit of a red flag. Luckily' and she almost gagged on the word, 'I was the one checking out the lead'.  
  
He narrowed his eyes, assessing the security risk was imperative. Logan had been privy to quite a lot of information. 'Do you think he told them anything?'  
  
For the first time that evening she smiled. Alec watched with morbid fascination as her mouth twisted upwards and her clear blue eyes remained completely dead. 'There was a note on the body. A warning. For Eyes Only. They didn't even know who they had'  
  
Now that he knew, he had to leave. Asha was more of a corpse than Logan's empty body. He had no training for this, he had felt grief but been unable to speak it. There was no way he could ease hers. He contemplated leaving the way he came but decided to go out the front way. Give those complacent sentries something to meditate on.  
  
'Well' he announced. 'Can't say it's been fun. Good Luck with your resistance and all.' He moved to the door, before he could regret his flippancy and was almost away when he heard her voice.  
  
'Alec?'  
  
'Yeah?'  
  
'If you think Max was in the dark about Logan and I, you're as stupid as he was.'  
  
  
  
  
  
Outside of Terminal City, Alec was still thinking about what Asha had said. Had he allowed wishful thinking to get in the way of an honest assessment of the situation? He didn't want to believe that Max had knowingly allowed Logan to play her, but did that mean she hadn't?  
  
The guard at the sewer entrance looked up as he advanced and they had a brief conversation. A new batch of transgenics had come through about 4 hours before: a couple of X series and a scaly looking transhuman with a forked tongue. Gripp the guard, an X six in testosterone overdrive, gained great amusement from speculating on what benefits a forked tongue might have in his dealings with the female of the species. Alec didn't feel like laughing, but he did anyway.  
  
He walked towards Max's rooms, saying hi to those he recognised and nodding to those he didn't. She wasn't there so he tried the mess hall. It had once been a staff cafeteria for a major chemical corporation and now fed all of Terminal City. It was largely empty, the exception being a cosy transhuman couple gnawing on what looked like cow bones. He nodded to them as well and tried his last option, the command centre.  
  
It was 3am but the command center was not entirely deserted. Mole and Luke occupied one corner. Luke appeared to be making yet another procurement master list. Mole, who bore the unofficial role of procurement coordinator, seemed to be arguing with him about every item on that list. An X 5, probably a new arrival, was answering the questions of another X 5, whose name he thought was Cali.  
  
In the middle of the room, was Max.  
  
She saw him.  
  
'Alec! Come over here would you?'  
  
She was standing with an open file in her hand, looking concerned. Her hair was still tightly pulled back against her head, she showed no sign of having slept, but she didn't seem to be tired either. She glanced at him.  
  
'You aiight?'  
  
'Yeah'  
  
She looked skeptical.  
  
Great, he thought. Her boyfriend dies and she's worried about my health and happiness.  
  
'Tired That's all.'  
  
She looked him up and down, trying to remember the last time he had slept. She couldn't. Things had been busy and Alec had put himself in charge of food procurement She watched him walk closer, stifling her amusement when he scrubbed at his face with the back of his hand like a sleepy child.  
  
'I want you to meet somebody. This is.' she trailed off.  
  
'Emerald' supplied an unknown voice.  
  
Alec was startled, he hadn't noticed anybody standing with Max. Now that he looked closely there was quite clearly a girl with a document right there.  
  
'Hey. Nice name' He couldn't figure out the reason for it though. Her eyes and hair were a nondescript brown, her skin tone not at all green. She was thin, bony really, and he wondered if she was a norm.  
  
'Thanks. Chose it myself' She interrupted his train of thought. Not a norm then.  
  
He tilted his head and tried to place her series. No luck.  
  
'Emerald has some intell. I think you should hear it' Max looked at Emerald and smiled slightly, signaling her to go ahead.  
  
A/N thanks to those who read and responded, you three made my week! : ) Hope everybody likes this new chapter, be sure and review because even if you think it's dodgy, I'd like to know! 


	3. Chapter Three

'.43rd percentile, of course there's a significant likelihood that General Douglas won't mobilize the 28th division until the second phase, in which case the chance of survival in the first phase would rise to 59 percent. representative of the total power. periodic reinforcements.. '  
  
Alec dipped in and out of the conversation, Emerald had been delivering the bad news in her slightly atonal voice for at least half an hour. He looked at Max, her forehead creased from concentration, her whole bearing attentive. Mole and Luke had drifted across the room, pulled in by Emerald's tide of statistics and risk analysis. What had Brain called it? Heuristics. Data knowledge. Probability Algorithms. Whatever.  
  
'mission objective variants.. Termination and Retrieval. third stage.2 percent chance of survival.'  
  
Alec had come to the conclusion that Emerald was an X5, I.T concentrate, like Brain. He had seen the stealth programming as an asset initially, but combined with his tiredness it was more like a design flaw. His eyes slipped away from her once again and he wondered what good it was to have a General, complete with staff, that tired field soldiers would be unable to see.  
  
He gazed around the room and stretched subtly on the spot, working up methodically from his feet. He had joined his hands and pushed out behind himself, stretching out his stiff shoulders and the muscles across his chest when he heard Emerald stammering to a halt. Her eyes had a glazed look and her mouth was hanging slightly open. Mole and Luke were smiling and Max, hand across her mouth, was barely holding a straight face. She cleared her throat and Emerald flushed from her neck to the roots of her hair.  
  
'Alec. You should probably get some rest' said Max with a quick smile. 'We can continue this tomorrow. We've got at least a week right?' She glanced at Emerald who snapped back into I.T mode.  
  
'Nine days. 80 percent'  
  
'Yeah. O.k.' said Alec, giving in without a struggle. 'What about Logan?'  
  
Mole and Luke appeared confused at the sudden change of topic. There was a brief flash of pain in Max's eyes but her voice was neutral.  
  
'What about him?'  
  
'I've ascertained that security was not breached but his computer systems could still present a risk, if they were to fall into the wrong hands. On the other hand, we might be able to get something from them.' Alec paused, 'I suggest retrieval, and if necessary, a scorched earth policy.'  
  
Alec thought he saw Max wince but it could have been a trick of light as she glanced at her wristwatch.  
  
'0400 hours' she announced. 'Anybody know when dawn is?'  
  
'2 hours, 10 minutes' supplied Emerald.  
  
'Right' Max's lips pursed with thought. 'Too late for a mission. Tomorrow night we'll go. For now send someone over to stand guard. Secretly. They can hide during the day and we'll send a team at night for retrieval. If there's a risk, torch it. I don't want anyone other than us getting their hands on his stuff'  
  
'I'll take care of that and then I'll hit the sack' said Alec turning to go. ''Night all.'  
  
  
  
'Alec' called Mole down the hall. He stopped to allow him to draw level.  
  
'Yeah?'  
  
'Where's Cale? Vacationing in the Bahamas? '  
  
'Dead'  
  
'Oh' he seemed lost in mournful thought. 'You kill him?'  
  
Alec narrowed his eyes.  
  
' Don't answer that' continued Mole. 'Wouldn't want you to incriminate yourself. Max seems to be taking it well. No Shakespearean hysterics.' He smiled goulishly 'You know what that means?'  
  
'What?'  
  
'Something rotten in the state of Denmark' and he walked away, chuckling to himself.  
  
  
  
Alec looked over the food procurement lists. It wasn't looking good. New transgenics were still trickling in and even the black market suppliers were starting to dry up. Fresh food was hard to get even for ordinaries and it wasn't like they could just send someone down to the market. Dried, packaged and storable food was slightly easier to get hold of but still just as difficult to transport in large quantities. Some of the transhumans needed special food and getting raw meat of any kind was the most difficult of all.  
  
Things were looking bad. Very bad. Not that it really mattered, if Emerald's intell was anything to go by. According to her they would be annihilated within 3 weeks. There was enough food to last until then. Just. He wondered whether Max had decided anything about strategy or troop movements. Probably not. It wasn't her area of expertise.  
  
Alec glanced out of the window, looking down to the street where they were drilling in combat training. He saw Max instantly, sparring with an X6 he recognised as Eric. Initially, the transgenics had been uncertain about pounding on their leader. It wasn't exactly encouraged at good old Manticore but Max had made it clear that she didn't mind getting hit and falling down. They had all gotten over it soon enough, and thanks to the daily beatings she took and the constant drills, Max was almost caught up on 10 years of combat training.  
  
The X6 was feeling the benefits of her hard work, holding his own but only barely. They were in direct sunlight and both were sweating. It took a lot to make a transgenic break a sweat and Alec wondered exactly how long they had been going at it.  
  
The X6 had removed his T-shirt. Max's hair was pasted to her forehead and her golden skin gleamed as moisture ran down her chest and arms. The khaki singlet she was wearing had darkened to black in places and clung to her wetly. Her legs were caked in dust, and blood trickled from a small gash high on her outer thigh. The black shorts she wore were filthy.  
  
A small crowd had collected around them but neither Max nor the X6 paid the least attention as he forced Max onto the defensive. She shifted tactics, blocking and parrying, but a gap in her guard allowed him to get a solid shot at her head. She reeled back, her lip split and bleeding as the crowd tensed and waited for him to 'finish' the bout. He wiped the sweat from his eyes, quickly, but before he could lower his hand she had snapped a roundhouse kick to his head with her right foot. It connected with enough force to break the neck of a norm and the X6 crumpled to the ground, dazed but conscious.  
  
Alec smirked to himself. The X6 had made a common mistake, underestimating Max's potential for gritty persistence, and he would have some lovely decorative bruising to remind him.  
  
'She's really something huh?' came a voice from beside him and he turned to find Emerald less than 10 centimeters away.  
  
He looked down at Max, who was wiping herself down with a ragged towel and extending an arm to the X6 on the ground.  
  
'Her defense is sloppy' he offered.  
  
She smiled lopsidedly. 'She's not the kind of person who always keeps her guard up'  
  
He appeared to be thinking her statement over. 'Sorry I skipped out on you last night. Any decisions get made?'  
  
'No.' she tilted her head. 'Not really. I think Max will be looking to discuss things with you further before committing to any specific course of action.'  
  
'Right. Have you been given quarters yet?'  
  
'Yep.' She smiled so widely Alec was worried her face would split. 'Mole showed me. I was just on my way to meet him when I saw you in here moping.'  
  
'I don't mope' said Alec, frowning.  
  
'Of course not' she said seriously.  
  
He suspected she was humoring him and gave her a quick smile to show he hadn't totally lost his sense of fun. She returned it but as she turned to leave a thought occurred to him.  
  
'Why Emerald?'  
  
'Pardon?'  
  
'Why choose Emerald as your name?'  
  
'Oh.' She thought about it and smirked. 'I've always loved the colour green.'  
  
  
  
  
  
Alec looked at the map on the wall and grinned. Just when you thought all hope was gone, the sun shone through the clouds. A supplier had failed to come through with a delivery of black market Canadian beef, saying the truck had been held up at the border. He had his transgenic hearing to thank for the fact that he heard his supplier's flunkies in the background, talking about how the Mayor was allowing the free passage of narcotics through his fair city. In return, he was getting enough dead cow to last a good year.  
  
His Honor would be eating white meat if Alec had anything to do with it.  
  
The door slammed open and he looked over in time to catch the dramatic entrance of Blue, a female transgenic who probably thought that 'lay low' was a sex tip. Other transgenics arrived at T.C stealthily; Blue and her 'boys' had vaulted the fence in broad daylight, much to the surprise of the trigger-happy spectators.  
  
'You asked for me?' she purred, giving him a thorough once over with her eyes.  
  
'I did and I'm glad. You look good enough to.', he allowed his own eyes to rove from her boot clad calves to her bare midriff to her face, 'spank.'  
  
She laughed, then pouted. 'Oh 494, so much promise, so little reward.'  
  
'That's only because I'm worried that you'll kick my ass 445'  
  
Her eyes glinted with amusement but she focused over his shoulder, looking at the wall behind him.  
  
'That the route?'  
  
'Sure is. Do you like it?'  
  
'It's gorgeous. Do I get accessories to match?'  
  
He passed her a slip of paper with 15 digits written on it in his precise handwriting. 'It's a code to the police impound lot. Madame may have her choice of the dishes on the menu and nobody will know she was there until long after she's gone'  
  
'Very nice' she said, looking down at the paper. 'I'll be bringing the boys, of course', as she casually scrunched it up, popped it between her glossy red lips and swallowed it.  
  
'Of course.' He tilted his head to the side. 'Where are they by the way?' Blue never went anywhere without her entourage of two, a pair of stoic and silent X6 males, one of whom was named Eric and had been beaten by Max that morning. He didn't know what the other one was called but it didn't really matter. Behind their backs, everybody called them Tweedledee and Tweedledum.  
  
'Eric has a foot print on the side of his head. I asked him to wait in the hallway.' She shook her head as if Eric's bruising seriously displeased her aesthetic sensibilities.  
  
Alec knew better than that. It had been clear since their arrival at T.C that she was as devoted to them as they were to her.  
  
Max chose that moment to walk through the door. Her lower lip had a gash in it and her cheekbone had a purple ringed graze that must have been caused by going face first into the dirt. She came up short at the sight of Blue, and Blue tensed.  
  
'Max'  
  
'Blue'  
  
'Congratulations on your fight this morning'  
  
Max shook her head slowly. 'That last shot was a lucky one. Eric really got through my defense'  
  
Blue relaxed and smiled slightly. 'He did, didn't he? Still, shouldn't have underestimated a hell cat like you.'  
  
Max smirked an acknowledgement, anything more would've opened up her lip again, and glanced at the map. 'Big plans for tonight?'  
  
'Yeah. Me and the boys are gonna bring home the bacon. Beef. Whatever. How many guards on the truck?'  
  
'Just two, up front' replied Alec. 'They should have sector clearance, so Mole will meet you here', he indicated a red pin pushed into the map, 'and then he'll take over.'  
  
'How's he gonna get them in?' asked Blue curiously. 'Hard to sneak a truckload of dead cow through a sewer.' It was a rhetorical question. Mole's methods were a secret to everyone but himself. 'That all?'  
  
Alec nodded.  
  
'Gotta blast. Me and the boys are gonna need our beauty sleep.'  
  
And, with a swirl of her electric blue hair, she was gone.  
  
'Why did they engineer her hair that way?' asked Max absently, her eyes on the closed door.  
  
'They didn't' Said Alec. 'Back at Manticore her hair was blonde.'  
  
Max didn't seem to hear him. 'Do you think they really.?'  
  
'Max' he recalled her to reality. 'Was there something you wanted?'  
  
'Oh. Umm. Yeah' She collected herself. 'About tonight.'  
  
'The beef run?'  
  
She shook her head and he remembered the other 'tonight'  
  
'Logan's? I was gonna go over there and take care of it myself'  
  
He watched Max forcibly set her face in 'expressionless' at the sound of Logan's name.  
  
'I want to come with you.'  
  
'Fine. I'll meet you in there at 9.'  
  
She thought about it. 'Sure thing'  
  
And Alec was alone again 


	4. Chapter Four

A/N: I know it's been a while, but please forgive me and R&R. All responses welcomed, and I mean all. Go On, Flame Me. I dare ya. Also, I've really earned my R rating on this chapter, and subsequent chapters will only be darker. Read at your own risk.  
  
  
  
  
  
Alec parked the dark blue panel van in the lane beside Foggle towers. He got out casually and locked the door, looking around for anything out of the ordinary. The drizzling rain masked the scent of the dumpsters at one end and puddles were slowly collecting underfoot. He turned up the collar of his jacket and headed for the service entrance. The residents of Foggle towers didn't want their tradespeople using the front door.  
  
He ran his stolen passcard through the door lock, smiling when the light turned green. He had picked it up from the pocket of a drunken cleaner at a strip club an hour before. By morning the guy would have it back in his pocket, none the wiser. He took the emergency stairs and broke into Logan's apartment , wondering if Max was already inside.  
  
The first thing he noticed was the darkness. His eyes adjusted quickly but he realised that he had never before seen Logan's apartment without the lights on. There was no smell of cooking, no softly burning candles. Even the computer was silent and dark, sitting innocently on the desktop.  
  
He did a quick scan of the rooms, they looked tidy but everywhere there were signs of Logan's life. A stray sock occupied his bathroom floor, his razor was slightly out of place and a smudge of shaving cream decorated the mirror. The bed was slightly rumpled, as if somebody had sat on it after it was made. The kitchen was clean but a white coffee mug rested on the sideboard as if he had rinsed it rather than put it in the dishwasher. The cupboards weren't as full as he thought they would be. He wondered what Logan's financial situation had been like, towards the end.  
  
A quick glance at the walls showed a couple of bare patches where art had been. An impressive Persian rug was missing from the floor. There was still enough art left in the apartment to finance a small revolution, so Alec didn't exactly feel sorry for the guy. You wanna be a hero, you gotta pay the price.  
  
He looked at his watch. Max was four and a half minutes late. Time to get down to business. The computers were his main priority. He checked the computer, cables, desk and power point for explosives. Logan might have taken one risk too many but he was pretty security conscious. Alec didn't really mind detonating the computers, but he wasn't keen on losing fingers or his hand in the process.  
  
They were clear so he started disconnecting things, wrapping the cords around to make them easier to carry. He wished there was a more tactically sound way of moving the goods down the building. It was either large loads and fewer trips, making it hard to see and hard to defend himself, or smaller loads and more trips, increasing the risk that someone would come along and question what he was doing.  
  
Alec chose larger loads and fewer trips, carrying Logan's hard drives down to the van first. He scanned the lane again, and glanced up at the windows of Foggle towers. Some instinct deep at the base of his spine told him that there was nobody watching him.  
  
It was after the second load that Alec returned to find Max in the apartment. Sitting down on the couch. He looked at his watch, she was 20 minutes late.  
  
He looked at her carefully, she seemed o.k. 'You're late'  
  
'Yeah. Got caught up.'  
  
He waited for more of an explanation. None came.  
  
'Help me get this last load'  
  
They worked silently together, carrying the last of Logan's equipment down the stairs and into the night. The light rain had gotten heavier and was pelting down hard, stinging Alec's exposed skin and soaking through his hair and jeans. They opened the van and as they put the gear inside he felt the water run inside his jacket, trickling down his spine. He turned to see Max heading for the building at a run but he took his time closing the van and followed her slowly, enjoying the cold water as it scoured his skin.  
  
  
  
He found her in the kitchen, packing the food into a large box. She looked up as he entered.  
  
'I thought we could use this stuff'  
  
He nodded, although he couldn't really see what Logan's bottle of balsamic vinegar would do for the common good, and squelched off to the bathroom. He found a fluffy towel hanging there and used it to dry off his hair and face. He removed his soaking jacket and his gray t-shirt, enjoying the feel of the soft towel on his skin. Logan, he thought with a tinge of regret, had got his priorities right in some ways.  
  
He put his shirt back on, cringing at the clinging dampness against his skin, and decided against the jacket. One last check of Logan's workstation showed that nothing had been left behind, there were no stray disks or papers. The metal wastepaper bin had ashes in it, Logan had apparently been careful about burning the evidence.  
  
'Do you think we should fence his art?' asked Max from the kitchen.  
  
He felt a spark of surprise. He hadn't expected such a casual attitude to Logan's stuff, and he wondered how long her practical attitude would last. He looked around the room with an appraising eye.  
  
'It's a good collection' he acknowledged. 'Small pieces, good variety so it's not too noticeable. Valuable but not so valuable they're a health risk. Be easy to fence, normally.'  
  
'I know what you're thinking' she said as she walked into the room. 'Too many trips and not enough of a payoff'  
  
He smiled at her. 'Right'  
  
'Bummer it has to go to his family though.'  
  
'They that bad?'  
  
Max sighed and looked around. 'Just a bunch of narcissistic assholes. No biggie'  
  
'And that surprised you, why?' It came out harsher than he wanted so he gave her something else to think about. 'There a safe anywhere round here?'  
  
She looked confused. 'A safe?'  
  
'Yeah. Logan moved large amounts of cash every now and then. Unless he was keeping it in his pocket or under the mattress.'  
  
'A safe', she murmured, looking thoughtfully around the room. 'We'll have to look for it'  
  
He scanned the apartment. 'I'll take the bedroom and the bathroom'  
  
He started with the bathroom, moving the fluffy white towels aside to check behind the rail. Nothing behind the picture on the wall either, but Alec hadn't really expected him to be as obvious as all that. He checked the shower recess but the tiles and floor were totally secure. He opened the medicine cabinet and raised his eyebrows. Eight different kinds of painkillers. Bandages. Syringes. Tryptophan. Stimulants. Sedatives. Antibiotics. Either Logan was the world's biggest hypochondriac or life with Max had really taken a toll on his medicine cabinet. He began to empty the cabinet. T.C, like the rest of Seattle was always short on anything medical.  
  
He checked the back of the empty medicine cabinet and made sure it couldn't be detached from the wall. Nada. He looked closely at the walls, but there were no flaws in the plaster. He checked the floor as well, but left the stray sock where it was. Looked like the bathroom was a safe-free zone.  
  
The bedroom was next. The walls were unblemished, the floor too. He thought about pulling the bed away from the wall to check behind it, but the thing was massive, old and wooden. There was no way Logan would have been able to move it on his own. He could hear Max searching still, so he lifted the mattress a little and ran his hand under it, coming up empty. He slid under the bed, checking the slats individually, hoping to find a key or some cash taped to one of them. He got some hope from the fact that it was pretty clean under there, but didn't find anything.  
  
He slid back out and rifled quickly through the bedside table. Books, a pair of glasses, some computer bits, a small screwdriver, a couple of ancient condoms, nothing useful or informative. He moved the table and checked the wall and floor where it had been. No luck and that left only the wardrobe to search.  
  
He paused at the door. There was a twinge of something deep in his belly. Guilt? It was as if he half expected Logan to come bursting through the door, yelling about invasion of privacy. He squashed it, he was one of the world's most expensive cat burglars and would go wherever he damn well wanted. It smelled of Logan's expensive aftershave in there. He started with the boxes in the corner, moving them aside to check the walls and floor. He pulled the drawers out of their rack to look behind them and slotted them back in when he found nothing. He checked behind the sweaters on the shelves and resisted the urge to toss the neatly organised clothes and their hangars to the floor. He pushed them aside.  
  
'Max.'  
  
'You got it?'  
  
'Yeah'  
  
He heard her enter the bedroom and pause.  
  
'In here'  
  
She came up behind him and looked around his shoulders.  
  
'Nice safe. Not much of a challenge though'  
  
He pressed his ear against the safe and began to run through the digits on the dial. He lost himself in the soft scrapes and clicks, imagining the intricate lock turning on itself. The cool metal caressed his face and he smiled to himself. Safe cracking had been one of his favourite exercises back at Manticore, a baby's game really, but methodical and reasonable when the rest of his life had no reason at all.  
  
The safe unlocked and he turned to Max with a grin.  
  
'Done. You wanna congratulate me?'  
  
'What, and interrupt your tender moment with the safe?'  
  
He flushed a little, embarrassed that she had picked up on his brief contentment. He turned back to the safe and opened it. There was cash inside, and papers, a gun and a gold Bast statue. The wads of cash were too fat for his jeans pockets, so he tossed them over his shoulder, smiling when he heard Max catch them. He looked at the papers and winced. The Last Will and Testament of Logan Alexander Cale, dated only 4 months before. Guy was a regular boy scout, always prepared. He tucked the gun into his pants, and wondered why Logan had bothered putting it in the safe at all. He was reaching for the Bast statue, when he heard Max speak, so quietly he had trouble picking it up.  
  
'Don't'  
  
He turned around and looked at her carefully. 'Don't what?'  
  
Her eyes were glued on the safe, on the statue and he looked at it more closely. There was a tag around it, handwritten, and the words were 'For Max.'  
  
'Leave it there' She was louder this time, more assertive. 'He keeps trying to give me stuff I don't want.'  
  
Alec looked at her measuringly and clicked the safe shut. He would send someone back for it if she changed her mind.  
  
They walked from the wardrobe and he detoured to the bathroom for the meds. It was more than an armful and he juggled them awkwardly to the kitchen and into the box. Max walked through the apartment and flipped the lights off one by one. Eventually, they were together in the dark. Max stood with her back to him, looking towards the window and he studied the taut muscles under her t-shirt. The silence swirled around them, swelling into the empty space.  
  
Alec hated silence. 'Why did you do it?'  
  
'Do what?' She didn't turn to face him.  
  
'Let him get away with it. Pretend you didn't know' He said it casually, trying to keep his tone flippant.  
  
There was no visible change in her posture, no audible change in her breathing. 'Didn't know what?'  
  
'About Asha. That they slept together'  
  
She turned around and looked at him seriously. 'What makes you think I knew?'  
  
'Could've been the total lack of surprise about that whole birthmark thing. Then again, maybe you're used to other women being more familiar with your boyfriend's body than you are'. His voice was sarcastic and he regretted it as soon as it was out there, but he couldn't take it back.  
  
She looked at the floor, and looked up again. She had a tiny smile on her face, her brown eyes had an expression he had seen from her before but couldn't quite place. Sympathy? He was thrown. He didn't know what he wanted her to do, or expected her to say, but sympathy hadn't even figured into the equation. He had a brief flash that the split in her lip had been worse than he thought, he could still see it and her transgenic healing should have cleared it up by now.  
  
She broke the silence, the eerie little smile still on her lips. 'I don't expect you to understand'  
  
'What's to understand? You let yourself be played. By him. Bad enough that he cheated on you while you were gone.'  
  
'C'mon Alec, He thought I was dead. What was he supposed to do? Just say no?'  
  
The tiny smile held firm when she spoke and it was starting to grate on his nerves. It was as if he had done a jigsaw puzzle only to discover at completion that there was a piece missing. He felt a push of anger and didn't bother trying to keep calm  
  
'You got any excuses for him doing Asha the second time?'  
  
'Like I said Alec, I don't expect you to get it.'  
  
'You're right. I don't get it. You've done nothing but bust my chops since I met you but you couldn't spare some anger for a guy who supposedly loved you and then fucked another woman on his goddamn desk?'  
  
That one went home. The smile didn't waver but something in her big brown eyes did. He felt a kind of sick pleasure at having got to her.  
  
'That something new? He was gagging for it Max. They didn't even make it to the bed, just found themselves a place somewhere in between all that shit we carried to the car'  
  
No sign of a smile now.  
  
'Like I said, Alec. There is no way you could understand. I didn't let myself be played, I just didn't let myself get angry. He deserved my forgiveness. He forgave me. I forgave him. That's what love is.'  
  
'You think I don't understand what love is? You think love is about forgiveness? You're an idiot Max. I know all about love Max, and let me tell you, if he loved you there's no way you would've been sitting around drinking wine for a year.'  
  
'Yeah? What would we have done? Fucked? Love isn't all about sex Alec'  
  
'You think I don't know that? I do.unlike somebody else in the room I can tell the difference between love and other emotions.'  
  
'What's that supposed to mean asshole?' She practically spat the words and he could tell that he was really getting to her now, paying her back for months worth of taking her shit. Adrenaline pumped through his bloodstream at the thought.  
  
'Tell me that this "love" of yours isn't mixed in with an unhealthy dose of hero worship'  
  
'It isn't' she denied it a little too hotly and he smiled maliciously at her.  
  
'Really? What about guilt? Got any of that in the mix?'  
  
She opened her mouth to retort but he stopped her. 'Don't even try denying it Max. You blame yourself for his condition. You mix it in with admiration, with safety, with friendship. You call it love but it isn't. It's an excuse. It holds you back, keeps you miserable, keeps you secure.'  
  
Her eyes were filled with water. A tear rolled down her cheek but he didn't stop. Couldn't if he wanted to and he really didn't want to. He had spent his whole life with his emotions on a leash, behind doors and bars. They had been building for days and now they were free, his anger burning through him in a rush, her defenses collapsing against the onslaught. She had gotten too used to him just cracking jokes and letting it go, she was powerless against an aspect of his personality neither of them had ever seen before.  
  
She deserves it, he thought, she deserves it.  
  
'Face it Max. Logan was just part of your search for a family. A father figure: Logan and Lydecker, always watching over you. Eyes only.'  
  
'Shut up.' She ground it out, her shoulders shaking with the effort of it. 'You think you could have done better Alec? You think being out of Manticore a year qualifies you to judge me? Fuck you. You think fucking that rich slut was love? You wouldn't know real love if it bit you in the ass.'  
  
He didn't see his fist moving until after he had caught her in the jaw. Her head snapped back and she stumbled from the force, coming up against the wall behind her. He stood still for a moment, realising abstractly, that he had hit her hard enough to bruise his own knuckles.  
  
'Shit, Max. I'm.'  
  
She charged him, and her head impacted with his stomach as the air rushed out of him in a whoosh. 'Asshole.'  
  
He fell underneath her, more from surprise than anything else, and failed to block when she punched him in the kidney. He buckled from the pain, but she straddled him, holding him down and punching him again, first in the kidneys, then in the face. Pain ripped through him, splintering his consciousness as he fought the urge to throw up. Blood trickled into his left eye and he blinked, hard, to try and clear it. Max pinned his arms with her own and looked down at him, confident in her ability to hold him where he was.  
  
The look in her eyes was speculative, as if she was trying to work out where to hit next. His instincts kicked in and he brought his head up with lightning speed, smashing his forehead into her face as he rolled her underneath him, reversing their positions. The fog in his head coalesced and dispersed as the moment stretched out around them.  
  
Max, he realised, was unconscious. 


	5. Chapter Five

A/N. much gratitude to all who reviewed me, and hassled me to write more. you know who you are : ) Along the above lines, special thanks must go to ACB. : ). This chapter is for Rowe, who unknowingly inspired me to write Emerald into something bigger than she was.  
  
  
  
  
  
Blue threw her head back and laughed at the unexpected challenge. The wind carried away all sound except it's own but she could have sworn she felt Lucas chuckle too. She ran her hand over Lucas' chest, encased in nothing but his standard tight t-shirt, despite the cold air. His muscles were smooth and firm, beckoning, but she refused to allow them to distract her.  
  
The driver, responding to the death of his guard, had hit the accelerator in an attempt to outrun them. Calculation, or just dumb luck, it was a good move for him. They couldn't shoot out the tires on the truck because they needed it to transport the meat. The bikes she had chosen looked sexy as hell with the boys, but they were a bit of a handicap when it came to moving around dead cow. Then, there was the first Seattle checkpoint, less than 10 klicks up the road. It was crucial to get the truck before then, far enough away that no one would hear or see anything. Which meant they had to act now.  
  
They were riding directly behind the truck and she held her arm out and forward so that Eric and Lucas could see her signaling a change of sides. Eric dropped back seamlessly and she and Lucas took his place on the right side, speeding up to draw up ahead of the truck's now unguarded passenger door. She swung her leg over to sit sidesaddle on the bike, and jumped, impacting with the truck, and clinging to the mirror.  
  
She could see the driver through the windshield, his eyes wide, his sweat trickling down his forehead as he tried to load an old shotgun with one hand. He was clever, for a norm, but she was too fast for him as she broke more glass from the shattered passenger window and hauled herself through, onto the body of the dead guard.  
  
She could feel the bite of glass in her palms, but she wrenched the shotgun from his hands, throwing it out the window. She turned to the driver and smiled.  
  
  
  
Alec knew he was breathing heavily but he couldn't seem to control it. He tried to run through the breathing drills he had learned at Manticore, but he was out of practice and the steps jumbled together in his head. His panting breaths echoed into the quiet room, Max's unnatural silence throwing the noise into sharp relief.  
  
He closed his eyes and opened them again, noticing that his vision was still partly obscured by a steady trickle of blood. As he watched, a tiny droplet fell through the air and onto Max, shining wetly in the dim light. There was other blood, he noticed, coming from her nose and he realised that he was still pinning her limp wrists to Logan's floor.  
  
He let them go and they were ringed in white from the pressure of his grip. He stared at her. When she woke up, she would kill him. Or he would kill her. Either way was not good. He glanced around the apartment and was surprised to see that it hadn't caved in around them. The box of stolen supplies rested innocently on the bench top.  
  
He stood and looked down at her, her body flaccid looking, legs slightly spread, nose bloody. Even unconscious, there were lines of faint hostility in her face. If they didn't leave now they were going to be late to the rendezvous with Mole but he knew that bringing Max round would be more trouble than it was worth.  
  
He carried the box down to the van and loaded it in, re-entering the apartment carefully in case she was awake and lying in wait. She was where he had left her, breathing even and slow. He approached cautiously, and gently kicked the soles of her feet.  
  
'Max?'  
  
When there was no response, he knelt beside her and pushed his arms beneath her, feeling a tiny surprise at the warmth of her body. He lifted her, and cradled her to him, arms and legs dangling uselessly, head tipped back. She was lighter than he expected, and her hip dug into him as he carried her easily down the stairs, buckling her into the passenger seat of the van. She didn't wake and he had to recline the seat slightly to stop her from falling forward. He sat in the driver's seat and stared at her. Wondered what she would say when she came round.  
  
They drove. Or he drove, and she lay there. He thought about death and about how he had seen so much of it. He was glad she wasn't dead, and he was glad he hadn't killed her. It could have happened so easily, so quickly. In his mind, his knuckles followed the head butt, cutting off her airway. Or his hands, snapping her neck, forcing it to hang at an unnatural angle. He was a killer and she was a killer and they could have killed each other.  
  
He drove carefully, initially to avoid rolling her around in the seat. After that, it was because the noise of the van interfered with the sound of her breathing. He needed to hear it. He glanced at her now and then, to see the soft rise and fall of her black clad chest. He wondered if she would understand how close they had come to wiping each other out. They were angry enough, strong enough, fast enough. They had been standing on the brink.  
  
  
  
Emerald looked around the darkened street. They had been waiting in the drizzling rain for 10 minutes. She had been somewhat surprised when Mole had indicated that she should come with him on the supply pickup. His secrecy was the stuff of legend. She didn't mind the steady drizzle and while she stood there she had calculated the likelihood that the drizzle would stop, the likelihood of there being an accident involving either of the drop vehicles and the likelihood of their location being discovered by sector police. After that, she moved on to calculating more obscure things. Like the likelihood of their survival after being discovered by the sector police having been involved in a vehicular accident caused by the drizzle.  
  
She had discovered, long ago, the value of being forewarned. She ran the sums constantly, wherever she went, without even really thinking about it. TC was fascinating, packed with variables and always in motion. There was an endless capacity in the world for changes but to her, Terminal City felt like a nexus, a fulcrum on which the rest of the country would turn.  
  
The rain was murmuring softly on her plastic rain jacket, and slowly soaking through the legs of her sweats. Mole stood next to her, and if he felt the drizzle at all he gave no indication of it. It was difficult to read his expressions at the best of times and he was looking out into the night. She wondered how drizzle would feel if you had scales instead of skin.  
  
'They're coming', he said suddenly, but she couldn't hear or see anything beyond the rainy street. She didn't doubt his perception, so she waited, staring into the distance alongside him. He shifted slightly in his shoes, and didn't say anything. On the way he had gone over the internal supply route with her, the one she would need to take, and so he probably thought there was nothing left to say.  
  
She heard the vehicles before she saw them. A deep, low throbbing could be heard in the distance.  
  
'Sounds like a fucking motorcade' muttered Mole. Seconds later, they came into view and Emerald had to stifle a laugh. Two motorbikes and a truck. It was a motorcade. The helmeted riders on either side of the truck seemed to be Tweedledee and Tweedledum, Blue's boys, but she couldn't be sure. She felt, rather than saw, Mole shift his hand slightly on the ubiquitous rifle. The driver of the truck was obscured from view by the darkness in the cabin and the moonlight on the windshield. They all came to a smooth halt on the rainy asphalt.  
  
The riders dismounted in perfect unison and removed their black helmets. Emerald let out a breath she didn't even know she had been holding. Tweedledee and Tweedledum. She didn't know where the names had come from, but they seemed to fit the carbon copy soldiers perfectly.  
  
'Hey there scales. How's it hangin' ?' Blue called out as she swung from the truck, trademark hair hidden under a soft black beanie. Emerald was grateful when Mole glanced sidelong at her, obviously enough to catch Blue's attention.  
  
'We're fine'  
  
Blue took the hint, but hid her surprise at discovering Emerald right there. 'Sorry 'bout that honey. That's some in-built camo you've got '  
  
'Nice entrance.' Bit out Mole. 'Discreet.'  
  
Blue didn't appreciate criticism, regardless of how justified it was. 'Shouldn't you be sunning yourself on a rock somewhere?'  
  
Emerald saw Mole open his mouth to say something and quickly jumped into the breach. The last thing anybody needed tonight was a brawl.  
  
'How'd it go?' she asked, and Blue looked a little surprised to be reminded of her presence.  
  
Blue appeared to think about it and grimaced. 'Good. Although, there are decisions I'd make differently.'  
  
She held out her hands, palm forward, and amongst the congealed blood and healing slashes Emerald could see the glitter of still-embedded glass. She winced and wondered how Blue had managed to drive the truck at all.  
  
'You need to go to the infirmary.'  
  
Blue smiled at the concern in Emerald's voice. Non-combat units were always more sympathetic. 'Nah. My boys'll take care of me.' There was a pause. 'Keys are in the dash.'  
  
The boys were saddling up as she walked back towards the bikes, and she swung up behind one of them so quickly that Emerald didn't see it. The revving of the engines blistered in the night and they turned the bikes carefully before roaring off into the distance.  
  
Mole strode towards the truck and Emerald followed, feeling a little like a lost puppy. Mole looked in the door and grunted. Streaks of blood coated the steering wheel and dash, there was a corpse in the passenger seat covered in fragments of glass. The guard. Emerald wondered whether Blue had left the driver alive.  
  
Mole clambered into the drivers seat and looked down at her.  
  
'Need anything?'  
  
She shook her head, no, and closed the door on him. There was a moment when their eyes met through the rain streaked glass. She thought she saw a small nod, but it could have been her imagination. He started the engine and drove off slowly. She didn't watch him go, and moved back into the shadows of a building, to wait for the next drop.  
  
  
  
Alec drove slowly along the dark street, headlights off. The van rolled to a halt, but he kept the engine running in case something was going on. He looked around the dark street again. Mole was late. He felt his awareness heighten and his muscles slip into something approaching a readiness to fight.  
  
He got out of the car and stood, looking around. 'Hey' The voice came from directly behind him. He turned.  
  
'Emerald. Wish you'd stop creeping up on me like that.'  
  
She forced a laugh. 'Well, you can thank Manticore for th. what the hell happened?'  
  
He struggled for an answer. How could he explain what had gone down? The words wouldn't come, but he realised he could hear Emerald, asking a question.  
  
'What?'  
  
She looked concerned. 'I said, "Did you get ambushed?"' She raised a hand to his face and he flinched. 'There's a lot of blood here.' She brushed a finger tip over the cut in his eyebrow. 'Looks like somebody got you a good one.'  
  
'It's nothing.' he shrugged her off.  
  
'Who was it? Vigilantes?'  
  
He thought about saying yes, and heading off all the questions and accusations at the pass. Then he thought about Max, still unconscious in the van.  
  
'It was Max.'  
  
'Max?' She sounded less surprised than he expected. 'Where is she?'  
  
He gestured loosely at the van.  
  
Emerald walked towards it, stopping when she could see Max slumped in the passenger seat. Her back to Alec was to Alec and her voice was forthright.  
  
'Is she dead?'  
  
'No.'  
  
She turned to face him, her voice still calm and even. 'TC doesn't need this shit right now Alec.'  
  
He felt her comment like a slap.  
  
'I know.'  
  
He could practically see the wheels turning in her head.  
  
'Nobody can know' She sounded definite about that, like she was giving an order.  
  
He nodded. 'What about Max?'  
  
'I have to take the van, so I'll take care of her. I might need to tell Mole.' She looked at him steadily, her brown eyes serious. 'Whatever this thing is, with you and Max, fix it. Now. In a weeks time, things are probably going to get bad and we need both of you, functioning at full capacity.'  
  
He nodded. Part of him was relieved at being told what to do, at having somebody else control the situation.  
  
'I need to return that passcard.'  
  
He turned and began to walk slowly away from her, heading back towards the place where he had begun his night. With any luck the cleaner would still be there, ogling naked women.  
  
'Alec?'  
  
He looked back over his shoulder at her and saw that her eyes were sympathetic once again.  
  
'Get some sleep. You look awful.' 


	6. Chapter Six

Max could hear a soft rumbling and the sound of music. She opened her eyes, slowly, but didn't move. It was important not to give too much away until she understood what was going on. She was in a car. Why had she been sleeping in a car? She barely slept in her own bed, especially now. Her head was aching 

She closed her eyes again, in the hope that the headache would go away. No luck. She opened them again. An oldies station was playing on the tinny radio. Some turn of the century rapper shrieked about things feeling empty without him. She came to realise that she was in a van, probably the same one they had loaded back at Logan's. She wondered who was driving and turned her head to look at the seat beside her. There was nobody in it. She squinted, despite her perfect eyesight. Vans did not drive themselves. There was a slippery feeling to the air around the steering wheel and in her head when she looked at the seat. 

'Emerald?' 

'Yeah?' She came into focus then, around her voice. It didn't sound like a happy 'yeah'.

'What's going on?'

'We're making the delivery'

'Logan's stuff?' 

'Uh huh.' Emerald kept her eyes on the darkened street, driving slowly with the lights off. 

Something occurred to her. 'Where's Alec?' 

Emerald glanced at her. 'He left. He had to return the passcard' There was a pause. 'He's not in such great shape, Max'

Max wondered how Emerald had made that sound less like a statement and more like an accusatory question. Then it came back to her. Logan's apartment. The argument, the fight, brief and vicious. Alec had knocked her out, that much was obvious. She tentatively raised a hand to her face. The bruises from her sparring that morning had merged with new areas of tenderness, there was dried blood below her nose. 

The music on the radio changed to aggressive metal-rock, there was a grinding crash of drums and guitar, the female vocalist alternately growling and screaming.

Alec. In bad shape. She felt, again, her fists, pounding into him, knuckles plunging into the soft flesh of his sides, crunching into his face. Aiming for the eyes. She glanced at her knuckles and saw that they were grazed in places, and crusted with blood. His blood, probably. 

It felt abstract. She couldn't find the context for her blows. Where had all the anger gone? It had seared through her like a firestorm and left nothing behind. She tried to feel angry with Alec again. She couldn't. She couldn't feel sorry for hitting him either. She registered her own scathing words with a grim disinterest. 

Emerald's voice interrupted her. 'Do you want to tell me what happened?' To Max, she sounded like a parent would sound, trying to be fair before administering a punishment. 

'We fought.' She offered. 

Emerald didn't say anything as she turned the van into the street level of a multi-storey car park. 

'We…'Max struggled for words. 'Argued.' She scrubbed at her face with the pads of her fingers. 'Not in that order.' 

'Right.' Emerald was concentrating hard as she turned the tight corners. They travelled down a level and Max realised that though she had been living in Seattle for most of her life, she had no idea where they were. 'What about ?' 

Max felt a surge of emotion. 'Logan.' She realised with a twinge of shock that she was on the verge of tears. Her voice was creaky. 'He hit me.' 

'Who? Alec?' Emerald sounded surprised. 

'I hurt him so badly.' Max couldn't stop the tears from coming. She fought the embarrassment of it, falling back on a technique she had invented herself, holding her breath to stop the sobs from slipping out. 

Her breath, when it came, was a gasp. 'I couldn't stop.' 

The van went down another level, and the radio cut out. 

There was silence. 

The van's lights illuminated the empty car park half-heartedly, barely denting the darkness. Emerald turned another corner and another down ramp loomed in front of them. They descended until they came to a large roller door.

The van stopped and Emerald killed the engine and got out. The car's dim headlights illuminated an ancient looking keypad on one side of the door. She could feel Max's dark brown eyes on her back. She turned and walked back to the van, positioning herself behind the wheel. 

The ancient roller door began to lift itself, groaning loudly from the effort. Halfway up, it stalled and there was a sharp screech of metal on metal until the door shuddered and continued up its track.

Emerald didn't say anything. 

She started the van again and slipped it into gear. She drove even slower than before, driving the van into a far corner and parking it there. She looked over at Max. A brief internal argument occurred.

'Stay here' 

She knew it would be easier with Max's help but some part of her didn't want Max to know Mole's secrets. She opened the back of the van and slid out the first box. It had a mixture of kitchen and medical supplies in it, jumbled together like an afterthought. It was light, and she carried it to the half-hidden door in the wall that Mole had told her would be there. 

The handle turned silently and she cursed her norm-level night vision as she looked into the blackness beyond. She put the box down and fumbled in the back of her pants for the torch she had clipped there. 

She held it in her mouth, the light surprisingly strong for such a small torch. 

There was the shadowy dampness of a disused sewer ahead of her. She walked ahead for couple of meters and there it was. Rope, Hooks and a stack of white plastic tubs. A pulley system, stretching beyond the light of the torch and into the darkness. 

Amazing. 

She loaded the box into one of the deep plastic tubs but there was still room, so she turned to go back to the van. Beside the door, where she had not noticed it before, was a little wheeled trolley. 

Emerald smiled. 

She made short work of the van's contents, wheeling it to the tunnel and loading it into the tubs. Max did not stir from the van. There where 5 tubs in all, full and quite heavy. She dragged them, one at a time, onto a small metal platform, and used a metal lever to pump them high enough to be hooked to the ropes. 

They swayed slightly, and she had a moments doubt about the system. It seemed too easy somehow, but the ropes held. She pulled the lower one towards her and the plastic tub slid away down the corridor, clearing space for the next. 

As she was loading it occurred to her that the system had been specially modified to allow someone without trans-gen strength to operate it. After that, another thought came to her and she slipped it into the back of her mind to be pondered over later. Some matters required considerable thought. 

Max watched Emerald climb behind the wheel, a small secretive smile hovering around her mouth. 

She wanted to say something, but she didn't know what. 

'I don't know what to do.' It surprised her, but it was true. It sounded right. 

Emerald looked at her, her muddy brown eyes thoughtful. 'About what?' 

She thought. 'About everything. The government. Alec' 

Emerald nodded. 'Something has to be done'

'Any advice to offer?' 

'Wear Sunscreen.' 

'Excuse me?'

Emerald shook her head. 'Max, I don't know what to tell you. We need to make plans to deal with the government but only you can make the decisions… unless you want to shoulder that responsibility on to somebody else?'

Max looked thoughtful. 'I'm not the best qualified.' 

'Who is?' 

'I don't know. Got any ideas?'

'Define qualified. What makes the best kind of leader Max? Somebody who has the best interests of the people at heart? Someone who's won a lot of battles? Someone who has the best grip on the intell?'

'I don't know' 

'You need to know. Before you erode everybody's confidence in you by showing your self doubt.' 

'You don't understand.' 

'That's right. I don't. That's why I can't really help. You already have the answers Max.'

'Then why am I so confused?'

'Probably because you're not being honest with yourself' 

Max felt pressure on an already raw nerve and gave a bitter little smile. 'You been talking to Alec lately?'

She waited for Emerald to speak. The engine started and Emerald frowned in concentration as she backed the van up and turned it around. The van struggled up the ramp as the roller door closed behind it. Emerald was squinting over the wheel and it occurred to Max that Emerald probably didn't have great night vision. 

She spoke. 'You need to fix that, Max. We've probably only got a week before the shit hits the fan.'

'How?' 

'I don't care how. Just do it. If word of this gets out at T.C… things could get messy.' 

Max struggled for something to say, but Emerald was right. Whatever was happening with her and Alec had to be resolved. And fast. 

The radio came back, crackly at first, then clearer. A news bulletin. 

'has stated categorically that Canada will not become embroiled in the Australasian war. In news closer to home, President Markson has sidelined corruption allegations, today offering the full support of the armed forces to the beleaguered government of Washington State.' 

The voice of the President rustled over the airwaves, gaining in momentum.

'This administration is not afraid to tackle the problems of the past. This administration will confront the pestilence head on. This administration is poised for immediate action. 

The people of America must no longer be forced to live in fear. The people of Seattle can no longer be expected to live with a nest of vipers in their midst'

No recourse will be given to the secessionist mutants of the so-called freak nation.

All their avenues of escape will be closed to them. No surrenders will be accepted. This administration will not be attempting to leash those monsters but rather, to eradicate them. The people of Seattle, no, the people of America, deserve that much'

The car rolled to a stop as Emerald took her foot off the gas. Max met her eyes. 

'This is not good'

Alec didn't look up from his beer when the President stopped speaking and the crowd in the bar cheered. He didn't need to see them, rejoicing over his future death. Cheering the destruction of the freaks. He had seen enough when Biggs had died. A good friend. A great soldier, who had fought for his country, unpaid, courageously, again and again. Strung up on the street. Mocked. Burned and desecrated.

What had he done to deserve it? What had any of them done to deserve it? What would they do now? 

He downed his beer and laid a note on the bar. Time to head back to T.C

Blue winced as Lucas used the tweezers to pull yet another tiny fragment of glass from her palm. She glanced at her left hand, immobilised by the bandages wrapped around it. A mummy hand. She grinned, and focused on Lucas, his forehead creased with concentration. She was careful to suppress the gasps of pain as he probed her flesh.

They worried about her too much when she was injured. Just like she worried about them. 

She looked at his bowed head, the buzz cut hair and broad neck, the muscled shoulders. The skin, she knew, was firm and soft. She remembered touching it, slick with sweat and arousal, her hand sliding across his broad back. She felt a slow burn of arousal low in her stomach at the thought. He looked up at her and smiled lazily, the sudden rise in pheromones catching his attention.

The door clicked open behind her, and she knew it was Eric. 

'Hey. The president committed the army today. We might be seeing some action soon.'

Blue looked over her shoulder at him, and raised an eyebrow.

'You think so?' 

'Well, yeah. Unless…'he trailed off as he came closer, the smell of the room sinking in.

He was silent as he came to sit behind her, bending his face into the crook of her neck.. Lucas put the tweezers aside, in slow motion, and lifted the bandages, caressing her wrist and kissing the scrapes as he wrapped her fingers one by one. He reached her undamaged thumb and lowered his mouth one again, sucking on it briefly and leaving it bandage less. 

Blue leaned back into Eric as he kissed her neck, sucking on the pulse beneath the skin. A low moan escaped her and Lucas looked up, dark eyes meeting hers seriously. 

'You going to be alright? These are pretty bad.' He squeezed her hand gently. 

She could barely find the breath to answer him as he leaned forward to kiss her. 

'We'll work around them' 


	7. Chapter Seven

A solitary figure stood in the pre-dawn street. Watching. The rain had stopped for the moment. Suddenly, he felt the faint vibrations of footsteps, moving towards him under the asphalt. The manhole cover at his feet wobbled in place before grating its way onto the road. Smoke curled around his head like a halo in the still night air. 

'You look like shit.'

Alec looked up. 'Thanks buddy. Friends like you, who needs enemies?'

'You say that like we're friends.' 

Alec struggled for a second before lifting himself out of the sewer. Mole thought about extending his hand to help and decided against it. Nobody likes having their weaknesses brought to attention.

'Max send you?' 

Mole shook his head. 'Max is sleeping off that fight you two had with the familiars.' He looked off into the distance and added nonchalantly 'Bad luck them showing up at Foggle towers like that.' 

'Yeah.' Alec shook his head. 'It was. Max tell you what happened?'

Mole looked down at the ground. 'No. Emerald.' He met Alec's eyes. She thinks I believe it. Nice girl. Not too smart.' 

Alec chuckled. Mole puffed thoughtfully on his cigar. They arrived, by silent consensus at Alec's dingy building. His quarters on the fourth floor were an empty lab, with a mattress pushed into the corner. Former windows were boarded up and another corner contained a gaping hole in the floor, looking into the disused offices below. 

Mole sat on the only chair in the room, leaving Alec to lower himself onto the mattress, wincing as the bruising on his abdomen made itself felt. Mole watched him dispassionately.

'She got you pretty good.' He watched as Alec dug around in the bedclothes, eventually removing a bottle of whisky. 

'Yeah. She did.' Alec drank deeply, not even flinching at the burn of liquor down his throat. 

'You hear that speech the president made?' 

'Yeah.' Alec capped the bottle and tossed it to Mole. 'I did.' 

Mole unscrewed the lid and drank, though alcohol didn't do much for him at all. Even a little fortification would help. 

'There's a meeting. 9 am.' He made a hissy sound that was something like a lizard snicker. 'High command only'

Alec looked at his watch. 'Great. Not even six hours sleep. Just like Manticore.' 

He looked pointedly at Mole. 'I need to get some sleep.' 

Mole shrugged. 'Go ahead. I got your back.' 

Alec didn't want to think about Mole's newfound protective instinct so he lay down on his side. It hurt too badly so he rolled over to lie on his back. From that vantage point he could only see the cracks and bumps in his dingy ceiling. He closed his eyes. 

Max scanned the map in front of her. Painstakingly noted on the map were all the bases within the continental United States. Beside the map was an annotated listing of which bases had what hardware, and how many troops. "Secret" bases were outlined in yellow. 

She wondered whether Emerald had gotten any sleep at all.

Max had known the outlook wasn't great, but she hadn't known exactly how bad, until this moment. The government had been holding back, hoping to eventually recoup some of their investments. Now. Annihilation. Emerald had been trying to explain. The United States army wasn't what it used to be but an injured giant was still a giant. 

Max knew now. By bringing the transgenics into the limelight, by asking them to stay in Terminal City, she had signed their death sentences. 

Only 30 minutes until the meeting and then she would have to explain it. Explain that they were all going to die. 

She wanted to crawl back onto her mouldy mattress and sleep. She wished OC were there, to tell her everything was going to be fine. OC did not materialise. She sank down onto a rickety chair. Logan was dead, Alec would probably never speak to her again and everybody she had hoped to save by destroying Manticore would probably be dead within the week.

No tears ran down her face and she didn't make a sound but her shoulders shook with repressed sobs.

Emerald knocked on the door. 'Blue?' She looked down the hallway in what had once been an office building. The smell was musty and she could hear a faint dripping. She knocked again, harder. No response. She tried the handle. The door swung open easily. Nobody locked things in T.C. The makeshift apartment was shadowy and sombre, the windowless design adding to the stifling effect. Emerald walked forwards. 

'Blue?' she called softly. There was a door at the far end and she walked towards it, feeling a sudden fear that something had happened to Blue and the boys, that they hadn't returned from the drop last night. She remembered Blue's injured hands and wondered how hard it would have been for her to fight with them. 

She paused at the door and raised her hand, knocking softly. She turned the door handle.

'Blue?'

It was lighter in the bedroom, a skylight letting in the gloomy morning, casting halfhearted light on the mattress sitting on the floor. It glowed dimly on the tangled mass of limbs and bedding, intrinsically entwined. 

She cleared her throat. 'Er… Blue?' 

The tangle stirred, and a head emerged. One of the boys. His sleepy eyes assessed the seemingly empty room.

'Wha…?

'Over here.' Emerald was surprised by how snappy she sounded. 'It's me. Emerald.' 

He seemed to get a better grip on her presence.

'What?'

'We need you guys. For a command meeting this morning.' 

'She's sleeping.' He scowled 'She was hurt last night.' 

'I know.' She paused. 'But, well, she's important.' 

He looked at the bed around him, and glanced back up at Emerald. 

'I'll wake them up. Half an hour' 

Emerald sensed that she was dismissed.

Mole watched in silence. Emerald's light brown hair caught the sun for a minute as she bowed her head over the large map. Mole had read the map and things didn't look good. He had trouble with X5 facial expressions sometimes, but judging by what he thought he could see on Max's bruised face, she had come to the same conclusion. Emerald and Max were the only other people in the room and it was 9 o'clock. All the other players were late for the game. 

He had left while Alec was washing. Mole had guarded Alec's uneasy sleep as he drank his way through Alec's whisky. Emerald's attempt to lie to him bothered him more than he wanted to think about. He puffed slowly on his cigar, speculatively watching smoke swirl around the room. 

The door swung open and Dix shuffled in. Mole wondered whether Joshua had been invited. Probably. Guy didn't usually have anything constructive to add in a military way, but he had a real knack for handling the X5s. And, these X5s really needed handling. 

Mole glanced at his watch again. Five minutes past nine. 

Alec was late. 

Blue was late too, but that was only to be expected. 

For somebody who couldn't use her hands, Blue was feeling pretty good. For somebody who had had hardly any sleep, Blue was feeling pretty good. In fact… Blue was feeling damn great. Her muscled felt relaxed and she was warm, flanked on either side by Lucas and Eric. She didn't need to be touching them to know that they were there. The heat from their bodies was more than enough. 

Long before their relationship was sexual they had slept together, huddled in a putrid sewer, the filthy smell filling their noses. It was the warmth she remembered the most. She would have liked to stay in bed with them, listening to the rain from their mattress on the floor, half-asleep and mellow from their collective orgasm.

She felt a rush of arousal at the thought, remembering the astounding synchronicity of it, the feel of them, over, around, above, inside. In the moment, her senses were tuned solely to them, the smell of their sweat soaked skin mingling with her own smells, and other, deeper scents. Every sound, every half-groaned murmur, echoed through her core. She saw flashes of deep brown eyes and felt every flex of every muscle in contact with her skin.

It was imprinted on her body and fresh in her mind. The aching and delicious pressure. The feelings of totality, of completion. The boneless joy that came afterwards. Nothing she had ever felt had come close to perfect, until she met Eric and Lucas. The thrill of battle and the rush of combat adrenaline were nothing in comparison. And the sleep! Deep and peaceful, safe and warm. She never woke up, never had nightmares when she could feel them around her. It had taken Eric to wake her that morning, passing on the message from Emerald. 

The thought brought her back to the present. The TC streets were very empty for this time of day, although she had the feeling of people hiding, people watching as they neared headquarters. Something was going down. She felt a surge of adrenaline. They had come to T.C in search of something bigger, and it looked like this might be it. 

An X6 wearing what looked like a tracksuit, glanced up as they entered.

'They're on the second floor.'

Blue nodded, taking the stairs two at a time, as the boys dropped behind her, unable to fit three across in the narrow passage on the second floor. She made her way to a windowless room in the centre of the floor and paused briefly before kicking open the door. 

'Am I late?' She grinned widely. The boys entered the room behind her and stood beside her as she assessed the room without even thinking. Max looking tense, bruised and, as usual, morose. Joshua waiting patiently alongside the lizard guy whose name, inexplicably, was Mole. She could never read the lizard's expressions so she didn't try. The box-like room was already filling with the smoke from his cigar. Her instincts told her that there was somebody else in the room. Her eyes told her otherwise. Emerald, she decided, looking hard and eventually seeing her, standing by the table. 

That left one person.

'Where's Alec?' 

Max went rigid. 

'He's not here yet.'

She wondered whether or not to leave it alone, given that it was clearly a sore spot. She decided against it. 

'What's the matter honey? Lover's quarrel?' 

Max scowled and winced as the change in expression stirred her bruising. Emerald stiffened slightly beside her. 

There were times when Max really didn't like Blue. Now was one of those times. 

'We got ambushed by familiars.' The lie rolled easily off her tongue and she looked down at the table, wondering if other lies would be as easy to tell. 'Everything's going to be fine', she practiced internally and suppressed her grim smile. That was one lie she wasn't prepared to tell. The soft click of the door didn't make her look up. She knew who it was, the hairs prickling on the back of her neck as a response to his presence. 

'Alec!' said Blue, and Max looked up, pretending to notice him at last. 'Max was just telling us about your near miss with the familiars' 

Max soberly looked Alec in the eye. 'Go along with it' she thought, 'Go along with it.' 

Alec broke the look to glance at Blue. 'Yeah. It was bad.' 

'So' Blue changed the topic glibly. 'Now that everybody is here…what's up?' 

'There's been a change.' Emerald stated. The federal government has authorized the use of lethal force in the interests of', she paused briefly, 'neutralizing us.' 

'Right' Blue looked serious. 'So when do we attack?' She smiled broadly. 

Max found her voice. 'We don't' Blue looked confused, and Emerald looked approving. She couldn't bring herself to look at Alec. 

Alec saw Max glance around the room. She was edgy, sad. The bruising on her face made her look younger, and more vulnerable.

'There's too much risk' she said. 'Too many casualties. We need to try and leave. Go to ground for a while and then…' 

It looked to Alec like she didn't really have a plan for what happened next. She didn't even seem to talk about escaping with any conviction. She cleared her throat. 'Emerald estimates that a full scale attack will occur within 3 days, so the evacuation would have to start soon. Like, now.' He could tell she was getting into the swing of it, feeling herself settle into her role as a leader again. 

'I think we'll need to go out in small groups, asap. These groups will need to be provisioned.' She was working it through as she spoke. 'Mole… you'll need to get on to that. There's going to have to be some kind of communication between groups, at some point so…'

'Bullshit.' Blue practically growled it, and her boys were immediately on the alert, scanning the room for a threat. 

Max came to an abrupt halt. 'What is?' She looked confused, and Alec could understand it. What was Blue doing?

'This.' Blue seemed to grow taller, her voice made her loathing clear. 'Running away.' 

'I can't see that we have any other viable option.' Emerald had the air of somebody explaining a basic point to a very simple child.

'Shut up!' Blue turned on Emerald, raising her voice. Alec had never seen Blue in anything resembling this state. He had seen her at Manticore, when they had all been emotionless numbers and seen her at TC as 'Blue', glib and selfish. He had never seen her get angry. 

'You think you know what's viable? You think you can tell us our 'options'?! Get real. You know nothing. You know less than our fearless leader here!'

She looked scathingly at Max. 'I can't believe you! Where do you get off? Telling us to run! We stayed because of you. We came because you said no more running. And now...the first sign of trouble… You make me sick.'

Max had tears welling up in her eyes. 'I just want everybody to be safe.. I just want us to be happy.' 

'Newsflash Max. It doesn't matter what that battlefield accountant tells you. We will **never** be safe. They hate us. They fear us. They opened Pandora's box and now they want to cram us all back inside, pretend it never happened?! And we'll all hide somewhere, until the next time some point scoring politician decides to hunt us down for kicks.'

The more Alec listened to Blue, the more sense it made. Why should they be the ones hiding, and running for their lives? He could see that Max was being won over too, and Blue softened her tone slightly.

'Look, Max… I know you weren't there for a lot of it but… we fought for them. We killed for them. We were slaves. We deserve more than being made to run for our lives.' 

Max nodded thoughtfully. 'What do the rest of you think?'

'It's a bad idea' Emerald's voice was flat. 'We'll all be killed.' 

Alec realized he didn't have to think about it. 'I'm with Blue. We should fight.' 

Mole had been uncharacteristically silent and Alec looked at him. He lit a fresh cigar and gave Emerald a long, thoughtful look that Alec didn't understand. 'We fight' he said shortly. 

'They owe us.'

She knew that other residents. 


End file.
